LONDON (The Deal) -- Two big stories wereathe focus of the international markets Mondayamorning. The first is the European bank stress tests, in which 25 banks failed. The second, in Asia, is the delay in implementing a link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges. There were two simultaneous stress-test operations, one by the European Central Bank for the eurozone and a second by the European Banking Authority which includes countries like the U.K. and much of Eastern Europe which are outside the currency union. Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks The biggest loser was Italy's Banca Monte Paschi di Siena,aone of Europe's oldest banks, which the ECB found had a shortfall of 2.1 billion euros ($2.66 billion). The bank's share was suspended on the Milan exchange after it fell 15% on opening.aBut the bank has said it is already drawing up plans to raise capital to fill the gap and has hired Citigroup and UBS to advise after receiving takeover approaches. The eurozone test was based on bank's regulatory equity up to the end of 2013 and found nineafailures in Italy, as well as individual institutions from Greece and Cyprus to Belgium and Ireland. But there were none in Spain. And the good news is that of the 25 failures, about half have already raised new capital to fill the gap. In Germany, Commerzbanka passed the test with flying colors and was rewarded with a share rise of 1%.aBut in the U.K., although all the big banks passed the EBA's test, the weakest was Lloyds Banking Group LYG, awhich is the country's largest mortgage lender and would be exposed to household debt in a downturn. Lloyds was down 2.31%. At the other end of the Eurasian land-mass, it was a very different story that hit the headlines. Hong Kong and Shanghai have been working for months on an electronic link that will link the two exchanges electronically. The cross-border trading venture will allow foreign investors to get access to China's $4 trillion stock market. Hong Kong and Chinese brokerages have invested hugely in the venture. But while the link -- known as the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect -- is technically ready it has yet to receive approval from the Chinese authorities. No official reason has been given, but some observers say it could be political, a sort of punishment from Beijing for Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.41% at 6,362, while in Paris the CAC 40 was down 0.36% at 4,114. In Frankfurt, the DAX was off 0.85% at 8,911 largely on worries about the German economy. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 0.68% at 23,143.23. China's Shanghai Composite was off 0.51% at 2,290.44. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 0.63% at 15,388.72a Must Read: 10 Stocks Billionaire John Paulson Loves in 2014
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